While Robert Johnson may be the artist most associated today with the title “King of the Delta Blues,” if such a title had been bestowed back when the music was first being recorded, the premier royal figure would by nearly all historical accounts been Charley Patton. While Johnson’s music set the pattern for many followers who rose to international fame in the blues and rock worlds, he did not loom as large a figure in his lifetime as Patton did in his — in terms of artistry and entertainment, if not in a literal sense (Patton was reportedly only about five and a half feet tall, belying his heavy-voiced growl).
Patton helped define not only the musical genre but also the image and lifestyle of the rambling Mississippi bluesman. Born on the Sam Herring plantation near Edwards, Mississippi, sometime between 1885 and April 1891, according to various documents (the subject of considerable debate among scholars, since Patton’s age is a significant issue in discussions of the chronology and development of Delta blues) Patton was of mixed black, white and native American ancestry. In the early 1900s his family moved to the Will Dockery plantation. Patton’s travels took him to Louisiana, Memphis, Chicago, and elsewhere, but he spent most of his time moving from plantation to plantation in the Delta, entertaining fieldhands at jukehouse dances and country stores, acquiring numerous wives and girlfriends along the way.
His most popular and influential record was his first release on Paramount, which paired “Pony Blues” with “Banty Rooster Blues.” Other Patton songs were noteworthy for their references to specific people, places, and topical events in the Delta. “High Water Everywhere,” a dramatic two-part account of the death, disaster and despair wrought by flooding of the Mississippi River, is often regarded as his masterpiece. His songs offered social commentary, delved into conflicting and complex personal emotions, and provided propulsive music for dancing, all performed with instrumental virtuosity and sometimes finding Patton employing multiple spoken voices to create his own cast of characters. Guitarist John Fahey, who wrote the first book on Patton, called him the “Pilgrim of the Ominous” and “a pioneer in the externalization through music of strange, weird, even ghastly emotional states.” Patton died in or near Indianola, Mississippi, on April 28, 1934.
— Jim O’Neal
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